College football front and center at CSVA Convention

The College Sports Video Association (CSVA) held its annual meeting in Kansas City this week with more than 67 video coordinators representing top Division 1 football programs, a handful of basketball programs and even hockey programs gathering to discuss the latest technology offerings and elect new officers.

Luke Goldstein, video coordinator for the University of Virginia, was elected president for a two-year term. Tim Collins video coordinator at Notre Dame, was named CSVA treasurer.

Among the hot topics of discussion? The use of the MXF (Material Exchange Format) that “wraps” video and audio files so they can be sent to editing systems and video servers from different manufacturers. By placing video files within the MXF wrapper schools that use different coaching systems (namely video editing platforms from LRS Sports, DVSports, XOS Technologies) can more easily share game video.

LRS Sports says the move to MXF levels the playing field between the different vendors and puts the emphasis on feature sets and interfaces. “We’ll be able to move video, data and play markers through a standardized format,” says Ron Wojcicki, LRS Sports manager.

Along with general meetings to discuss specific issues CSVA attendees had technology demonstrations from 14 sponsor vendors, including the aforementioned vendors plus JVC, Panasonic, NLT and Coach Comm.

One of the other hot trends was demonstrating game film playback on hand-held devices like the Sony PSP or an iPod. All of the leading coaching system vendors had proof-of-concept of systems that can convert video to the appropriate hand-held format. The trick now is to figure out if the screens are too small to support effective analysis.

Nonetheless, a number of Division 1 video coordinators believed it would at least be useful for players who could watch the game as they return home.

Next year’s convention is slated for San Diego, with Billy Vizzini, Florida State University video coordinator, saying that one of the goals of the CSVA between now and then is to begin bringing more and more basketball, hockey and baseball video coordinators into the CSVA. As those programs catch up to the football programs in their use of video making their voices heard and part of the discussion will lend to deeper understanding of technical trends and also make the college sports video market more important to vendors and schools.